Local community members are still working hard to ensure no child is left without the necessary school supplies this upcoming school year.  Keeshanda Tripp and Shereva Purifoy have spent many hours going door to door letting the community know about the school supply drive, and Tripp said their hard work is finally paying off.

“Since last week, we have gotten a tremendous response back about volunteering,” she said.

As of yesterday, the group has collected about 400 book bags, and are still collecting more items to donate to children in the community.

The supply drive is the grand finale of the three-day city-wide youth conference hosted at the group’s church, St. Paul Community Methodist Church located at 826 Choctaw Ave.  The conference will be at 6:30 p.m. each night starting Wednesday, Aug. 1 until Aug. 3. Each night will feature a different speaker and, according to Tripp and Purifoy, provides the youth with a positive and safe outlet. The supply drive will be Saturday, Aug. 4 beginning at noon.

Tripp said they are still in need of food donations and school supplies for Saturday’s event.

“We need hotdogs, hotdog buns hamburgers and buns, juice, water and chips,” she said. “We are also still in need of paper, pencils, pencil sharpeners and ink pens.”

Tripp said this event is for everyone in both the city and county schools.

“The most important thing, and the reason why we put [the event] across the river at our church, is because the county schools miss out on a lot,” she said. “When there are things in the city sometimes the people in the county miss out on a lot because they cannot get to the city. So, we wanted to bring this event to them.”

Purifoy said they are still taking uniform donations as well. She said even though there has been an increase in donations, all donations are still welcome.